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HOW DO RACE AND RELIGION IMPACT CHILDREN’S MORAL EXPECTATIONS OF OTHERS?

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Abstract

Religion and race are powerful social markers that impact children’s moral evaluations and guide their affiliative preferences. Past research has found that children expect Christians to have good morals, and similarly, children associate kindness with White as opposed to Black people. However, no research yet has tested how children rank the two dimensions in their moral judgments. In the present study, we investigate how children would evaluate individuals when religion and race were pitted against each other and suggested different predictions about their moral behaviors. Five to 10-year-old children (N = 72) were presented with pairs of individuals matched in gender. One individual was White and the other one was Black. Children were told the White person is not a Christian, while the Black person is a Christian. Then, children were told a story depicting a moral action (e.g., picked up the trash on the ground and threw it away) and asked which one of the two individuals performed the action. Children’s affiliative preferences were also assessed. The results suggested that the children expected the Black Christian to perform the moral action and in return exhibited more desire to affiliate with the Black Christian. In particular, relative to Non-Christian children, Christian children in this sample were more likely to choose the Black Christian as completing the moral action and tended to affiliate more with the Black Christian. Thus, 5- to 10-year-old children from this study prioritize religion over race when forming moral expectations, which may inform their affiliative choices.

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45 pages

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2021-05

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affiliative preference; moral expectations; race; religion

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Union Local

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Committee Chair

Bian, Lin

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Kushnir, Tamar

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Human Development

Degree Name

M.A., Human Development

Degree Level

Master of Arts

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Government Document

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dissertation or thesis

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